"The Worst Decade Ever" "The Decade from Hell" "The Decade of Broken Dreams" "The Lost Decade" - what are they smoking in Time Magazine's newsroom?
Yes, this has been a hard ten years bookended by the Sep 11 attacks on one end and the financial meltdown on the other.
True, for the millions who've lost their loved ones to recent terror, to families struggling in a recession, to cities flattened by natural disaster, this has been a most trying time, perhaps as harsh a hell like all of the Time descriptions depict it.
But, not to undermine the suffering of others, is suffering new? Are we suddenly becoming all cynical and negative?
If yes, then fine, but for anyone who underwent those tragedies in the 90's it was just as bad then. For the billions who never had a job to lose, the recession wasn't exactly a deal breaker.
For the victims of terror of the Oslo War through the 90's, Sep 11 was the first moment when people in Netanya felt that the people in in New York understood their suffering of so many decades before the decade from hell...
So if despair and depression are the way we're going, sorry you're just a bit too late.
In fact, on the contrary, if you spoke to the orphans in Sderot, or the hungry children in Soweto you'll probably find much more inspiration than from the sensationalists at Time inc.
These children can see, or should I say can make "the best," even when others would only see the worst.
Like Yaakov.
This week we read of the closing chapter in the life of the father of the Jewish People "veYechi Yaakov" "and Yaakov lived."
Noting that the 17 years he lived there correspond to the numerical value of the word Tov which means good, the Baal HaTurim quotes the Medrash that these were in fact the "best years of his life"
"Best of his life?" asked the young Tzemach Tzedek to his grandfather the Baal HaTanya, "in Pagan Egypt were the best years" of a man who grew up in Eretz Yisrael?
The Baal HaTanya replied that by sending Yehuda to establish the Yeshiva (see last week's email for details), Yaakov was able to live a good life even in Egypt.
But why "the best" years?
Perhaps the reply of why it's "the best" is subtle because in a place of suffering and challenge it's hard to see it as the best. You don't see it as the best, because you never should be there in the first place.
You don't see or feel it as the best, but once you're there you make it the best.
This past Tuesday, the same day as Chanale's birthday was the Yahrzeit of my little brother Shloimy. A period in my life that could easily pass as the worst. But thank G-d for blessing me with parents such as mine who took the Rebbe's inspiration to them and transformed the hardest experiences, into "the best" lessons I'll ever learn about life, joy and what really counts.
Challenges are never easy. When they are, they're not challenges.
But Yaakov's Yeshiva and subsequent joy in Egypt - the eternal message of Torah and it's Divine Spirit in the metaphoric Egyptian Exile of the suffering we endure - empowers us to transform the best to the worst.
Yes, we could have, would have and should have done better. But it's not too late.
You too, with the inspiration of the Torah can establish a Yeshiva in the moments of Egypt in your life.
Wherever in the world, and under whatever circumstances you find or even put yourself, the bridge from the best to the worst, whether it's a decade or a day, is only as long as your first step forward.
Wishing you the best Shabbat in a decade,